thwack

Verb

thwack (third-person singular simple present thwacks, present participle thwacking, simple past and past participle thwacked)

1. (transitive) To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack.
   • This carter thwacketh his horse upon the croup, / And they began to drawen and to stoop.[1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Friar’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury...
   • Flaies lustily thwack, / least plough séede lack.1878, Thomas Tusser, “Octobers Abstract”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam]...

   Synonyms:

   thack, bethwack, bang, baste, batter, beat, belabor, blow, boom-boom, buffet

2. (also, figuratively, transitive) To drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting; to knock.
   • But let him ſvveare ſo, and he ſhall not ſtay, / VVee'l thvvack him hence vvith Diſtaffes.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
3. (transitive) To pack (people or things) closely together; to cram.
   • [W]hen hee comes to deſcribe the office of his imaginarie doctor [he] thvvacks fourteene Scriptures into the margent, vvhereof not any one hath any iuſt colour of inference to his purpoſe: […]1610, Jos[eph] Hall, “Section V. The Antiquity and Examples of Separation.”, in A Common Apologie of the Church of England: Against the Uniust Challenges of the Ouer-iust Sect, Commonly Called...
   • [W]ho vvould have thought a man could have thvvackt together ſo many incongruous ſimilitudes, had it not been to defend the motley i[n]coherence of a patch'd Miſſall?1641, [John Milton], Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus, London: […] [Richard Oulton and Gregory Dexter] for Thomas Vnderhill, […], →OCLC, page 24
4. (figuratively, transitive) To decisively defeat (someone) in a contest; to beat, to thrash.
   • 3 [Servingman] VVhy here's he that vvas vvont to thvvacke our Generall, Caius Martius. / 1 VVhy do you ſay, thvvacke our Generall? / 3 I do not ſay thvvacke our Generall, but he vvas alvvayes good enough for him.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • [W]hat adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when he went to thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence, and for her deliverance?1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC...
5. (obsolete, transitive) To crowd or pack (a place or thing) with people, objects, etc.
   • And my lad Aſcanius with a Troian mantel adorning, / Weau'd woorks thwackt with honor, to her gifts this parlye ſhe lincketh.1582, Virgil, “The Third Booke of Virgil His Aeneis”, in Richard Stanyhurst, transl., The First Foure Bookes of Virgils Æneis, […], London: […] Henrie Bynneman […], published 1583, →OCLC; republished...
6. (intransitive) To fall down hard with a thump.
   • And see, that urchin, ho-ieroe! / His truant legs they sink from under, / And to the quaking sheet below [i.e., ice on which he has been skating], / Down thwacks he, with a thud like thunder!1831 February, “Delta” [pseudonym; David Macbeth Moir], “The Winter Wild”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXIX, number CLXXVII, part II, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas]...
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To be crammed or filled full.
   • [A]ll that vvere vvithin the audience of theſe vvords and dovvn the Church, vvhich vvas as full as it could thvvack in thick multitudes, gave a loud general applauſe.1650, Alexander Giraffi [i.e., Alessandro Giraffi], “Saturday the 13. of Iuly, 1647. The Seventh Day.”, in James Howell, transl., An Exact Historie of the Late Revolutions in Naples; […], London: […]...
8. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) Of people: to crowd or pack a place.
   • All the vviſe vvenches i'the Tovvn vvill thvvack to ſuch Sanctuaries, vvhen the times are troubleſome, and Troopers trace the ſtreets in terror.c. 1629–1632 (date written), Richard Brome, “The City Wit, or, The Woman Wears the Breeches. A Comedy.”, in A[lexander] Brome, editor, Five New Playes, […], London: […] Humphrey Moseley, Richard...

Noun

thwack (plural thwacks)

1. An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.
   • Him Ralph encountred, and straight grew / A fierce Dispute betwixt them two: / Th'one arm'd with Metall, t'other with Wood; / This fit for bruise, and that for Blood. / With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, / Hard Crab-tree and old Iron rang; / While none that saw them could divine / To which side...1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678...
   • Noble Captain, Lend a reaſonable Thvvack, for the Love of God, vvith that Cane of yours, over theſe poor Shoulders.1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 205

   Synonyms:

   thack

2. A dull or heavy slapping sound.
   • I had scrambled out of the coach, and was instinctively settling my cravat, when somebody brushed roughly by me, and I heard a smart thwack upon the coachman’s ear. […] And then came a second thwack, aimed at the driver's other ear, but which missed it, and hit him on the nose, causing a terrible...1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mrs. Bullfrog”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], part I, New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, published 1846, →OCLC, page 122
   • "It's a comfort they're most on'em females," he pursued, sounding a thwack on his knee as he settled himself agreeably in his seat.1859, George Meredith, “Crisis in the Apple-disease”, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, page 137

   Synonyms:

   thwomp

Interjection

1. Used to represent the dull or heavy sound of someone or something being hit or slapped.
   • Three watrie clowds ſhymring toe the craft they rampired hizzing, / Three whern's fierd gliſtring, with ſouthwynds rufflered huffling. / Now doe they rayſe gaſtly lightnings, now griſlye reboundings / Of ruffe raffe roaring, mens harts with terror agryſing. / With peale meale ramping, with thwick...1582, Virgil, “[Here after Ensue Certayne Poetical Conceites. […].] The Description of Liparen, […].”, in Richard Stanyhurst, transl., The First Foure Bookes of Virgils Æneis, […], London: […] Henrie...
   • And then—Thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert's head and cracked it—slate, not head—clear across.1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Tempest in the School Teapot”, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, published August 1909, →OCLC, page 156